If you are like me, there is no more complex question to answer than, “What is your personal style?”
Girly, punk, boho-chic, edgy-goth, blah, blah and blah. Fashion magazines do their very best to convince us that our styles can be boxed into these precise categories that can be defined by just the right amount of black eyeliner or pretty pink peplums.
But what about the girl who starts her week off in a soft lavender high-low skirt with a sock bun, but ends it in destroyed black skinnies and a deep plum lip? What about the girl that likes her floral dress with a side of rocker combats? What about the guy that just wants to encompass the effortlessly shaggy look, but with just enough effort to get a second look?
What about you?
Anyone who has taken J2000 will tell you that few things in this world are ever simple enough to be put into black and white. It’s rare to find anything that can be neatly packaged into a definitive little category.
And, honey, your style is no exception.
In my very last column, I want to leave you sparklers with a crucial nugget of style wisdom. Not because I’m an expert, because I’m not. But because I’ve had a countless number of “Well, this looked totally different in my bathroom mirror,” “Okay, so why did I think this was a good idea?” and “Oh, girl…What?…No?” moments within myself.
So many, in fact, that I’ve learned to follow each of these internal statements with this: “May as well pretend to be Tyra and do the damn thing.”
And because I’ve learned that even the chicest outfit doesn’t shine as bright if it isn’t worn with self-assurance. If you don’t wear your clothes boldly, your clothes will wear you. And that is just not okay.
Confidence is everything.
Don’t forget this, either: not everyone will like your outfit.
I went out with a guy who straight up told me that he preferred girls to dress “classically feminine” (whatever the hell that means). He also was very opposed to “hipster-like alternative” pieces like high-waisted shorts and combat boots. Needless to say, things didn’t last very long.
Dress for you. For what makes you feel good and for what expresses your shine.
Also, wardrobe mishaps are a definite thing.
I can almost guarantee you that at some point, something is going to rip or fall off. One of your dresses is going to be see-through in sunlight, even though you could have sworn it was totally opaque. And yes, lots of eye shadows completely change color in different light.
It’s in these moments that you have to tilt your chin up, smirk a little and strut. Because as far as I’m concerned, there is only one kind of personal style that matters: fabulous.
Fabulous doesn’t imply any certain number of sparkly prints or a certain shade of lip stain. Fabulous has far less to do with what you’re wearing than it does with how you wear it.
You are fabulous because you are you. Your style is the most fabulous when it embodies you, regardless of what “category” it fits into. You are your own genre.
So, as I bid you all a chic little farewell, I hope you stay stylishly you.
Whether it be on your walk of shame from Greektown, to class when you’re 15 minutes late or the first day after a vicious night of a tear-filled breakup, I hope you stay fabulous. And I hope you stay overdressed.